July 07, 2021
Taranaki iwi counts cost of settlement koha
Taranaki iwi Ngāti Maru has taken a step closer to its historic treaty settlement with yesterday’s first reading of the settlement legislation.
Negotiator Anaru Marshall says the gathering a parliament was a chance for iwi members to reconnect, as February’s signing of the deed of settlement had to be scaled back because of Covid restrictions.
He says the package is a fraction of what was lost, so Ngāti Maru can be said to have made a koha to the nation.
"When we look at our estate, 220,000 hectares, it was full of forests, big forests, and they were all felled to built the towns and cities in this country, the coal mines here were mined to drive industry, we've got oil and gas here, hydroelectric, all that went into the national grid, into building this country up," Mr Marshall says.
He says the settlement can never be about righting all the wrongs, but Ngāti Maru is keen to move forward and create a pathway for its rangatahi.
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